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The Relevance Of Purpose In Constitutional Equal Protection Challenges To Executive Action, Wei Yao, Kenny Chng
The Relevance Of Purpose In Constitutional Equal Protection Challenges To Executive Action, Wei Yao, Kenny Chng
Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law
Written constitutions often include generalized guarantees of equal protection which imply a proscription on unconstitutional differential treatment. This paper will examine what the analytical focus ought to be when evaluating challenges to executive action based on such rights, a particularly relevant issue given recent developments in Hong Kong’s and Singapore’s equal protection jurisprudence. These developments suggest that there are three possible analytical focal points, each of which takes a different perspective on the relevance of the executive’s purpose in utilizing differential treatment: (1) the connection between the chosen differentiation and the specific purpose of the challenged executive action; (2) the …
Why Judges Can't Save Democracy, Robert L. Tsai
Why Judges Can't Save Democracy, Robert L. Tsai
Faculty Scholarship
In The Specter of Dictatorship,1 David Driesen has written a learned, lively book about the dangers of autocracy, weaving together incisive observations about democratic backsliding in other countries with a piercing critique of American teetering on the brink of executive authoritarianism at home. Driesen draws deeply and faithfully on the extant literature on comparative constitutionalism and democracy studies. He also builds on the work of scholars of the American political system who have documented the largely one-way transfer of power over foreign affairs to the executive branch. Driesen's thesis has a slight originalist cast, holding that "the Founders aimed …